        XENON 2 - Review.              
   The shopkeeper winked knowingly at  
my purchase and I wondered if those    
hard fought for credits would benefit  
me. The second cannon was a good idea, 
I couldn't afford lasers yet, and these
fired faster anyway. A quick message   
from the computer informed me battle   
was about to be joined anew. The cannon
rotated nicely in their housing and    
they were soon into action against some
marauding beetles who wanted to sap my 
precious shields even at the cost of   
their lives.                           
   Xenon 2 has to be one of the best   
ever shoot-em-ups on the Amiga and it  
is good news for the Arc that we now   
have the game ported over by GamesWare 
(new) from the Bitmap Brothers original.
   Simply fly up the screen shooting   
everything that attacks from initially 
in front and then from behind as well. 
The scenery is very bio-tech and adopts
different themes for each level that   
fit in with the style of the marauding 
aliens. The scenery is not just for    
show, nasty little things pop out from 
the woodwork and try to give you a     
bullet sized headache. The game has a  
sensible learning curve and even I took
a while to complete all five levels.   
There is a set order of weaponry you   
learn to buy from the shops which will 
best suit the aliens you encounter from
level to level. When I completed this  
game on the PC some years back I worked
out the best stuff to buy, I might even
try to dig the list out for a future   
cheat column. Make a note of when to   
buy side shot or rear shot, it helps.  
It certainly helps because you are     
going to be playing this game for a    
good long time. The shopkeeper will    
have (by the time you get to level 5)  
all sorts of goodies on sale, including
a gadget that shoots in four directions
from behind the ship and the mandatory 
pair of bitmap shades. (All Bitmap Bros
games have these.) The only down side  
of this game is the at times jerky     
scrolling but you probably won't notice
it very often. Also The Hacker from    
Doggysoft seems to crash the game which
is a shame because a save game feature 
would have been nice. (same with Quark)
    Vital stats-                       
        Max cost - 25.99 (+p&p).       
        Needs - 1 Mb, RO2/3.           
        Input - Keyboard, Joysticks.   
                                       



  
**
